


“Shelanné Glenn, Fifth Handmaiden in the Second Class for Padmé Amidala”

by Polgarawolf



Series: Star Wars: You Became to Me [27]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: F/F, F/M, Handmaidens, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, Sacrificial ethics, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-27
Updated: 2007-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-13 09:00:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/501750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Polgarawolf/pseuds/Polgarawolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is fifteen random but chronological moments from the life of Shelanné Glenn, who is, quite literally, the fifth handmaiden in the second training class of potential handmaidens chosen from among a large pool of applicants for the job for the newly elected Nabooian Queen Padmé Amidala. There is an actual story here – one small thread among the vast woven tapestry of life that is the living history of the galaxy, stretched out and twisted, knotted into the whole, curled down among the roots of time, connecting various moments together – but one must read between the lines to capture it. It is not precisely the truth, for the subtle story of these moments is sketched out here in words, and, in the sin of writing down a life, it inevitably changes the shape of things. But it is nevertheless a form of truth. (From a certain point of view . . . )</p>
            </blockquote>





	“Shelanné Glenn, Fifth Handmaiden in the Second Class for Padmé Amidala”

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** This story functions as a sort of compressed codex for Shelanné Glenn’s life, as she is going to be written (or at least referred to) in my not even nearly complete AU **Star Wars** series **_You Became to Me_**. If anything doesn’t make sense, please feel free to ask!
> 
>  **Author’s Notes: 1.)** Again, for anyone interested, this not-quite-a-story is compatible with my SW AU series **_You Became to Me_** , including my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, if you squint at a couple of things sideways and view a few others solely through the lens of Shelanné Glenn’s eyes. **2.)** Although this is technically modeled on a prompt set that I borrowed from somewhere or another on the LJ (I really don’t recall from where anymore, precisely, though if someone would like to set the record straight, I’ll add the info for the community in question here in my notes), it’s not really meant to function as a response to whatever the challenge actually is that’s associated with said LJ prompt set. I just used the specific prompts to give me a reason to string together a backstory of sorts for Shelanné. **3.)** Readers might want to consider the fact that Shelanné, like a lot of native Nabooians, is fairly strong in the Force, but that she hasn’t received any training whatsoever to speak of and so has no real conscious control over that sensitivity to the Force. **4.)** Readers interested in knowing who the physical models are for original characters like Shelanné should please consult the latest versions of my posted lists of cast original and EU characters and for handmaid(en)s and other important Nabooian characters, which are available on my LJ! For clarity’s sake, though, Shelanné is modeled on a teenaged Shailene Woodley, Atessia and Corban Nepascia should be pictured as Nia Vardalos and John Corbett (both in their forties), and their sons, Dilyne, Kieras, Shaunn, and Connla Nepascia, as a young Will Wheaton (approximately nineteen and a half, at the time of the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo), a young Casey Affleck (a little bit over eighteen), Kieran Culkin (not quite seventeen), and Emile Hirsch (almost sixteen). Please note that characters who may be alluded to but not referenced by name (certain family members of EU or original characters, for example) are considered too minor to be cast at this time, and readers should feel free to imagine them howsoever they wish! **5.)** Handmaidens often tend to pair off, as is the case here, with Shelanné Glenn and Dané Cashillé, a fellow handmaiden from the same training class (hence, the relationship label for original female characters and the underage warning). **6.)** Speaking of pairings, I've labeled this to indicate both Padmé Amidala's and Sabé's love for Obi-Wan, because, even though it may not be specifically mentioned in this character study piece, handmaid(en)s know so much about their sworn Lady that readers can be certain that Shelanné, like all of Amidala's other handmaid(en)s who knew him (or knew of him), would have surely known about both their Lady's and Sabé's love and high regard for Obi-Wan, just as they would have known about how much Amidala and Sabé love one another!
> 
>  **Story Notes:** **1.)** Since this is part of a larger on-going AU series that in some respects fairly closely mirrors or follows events of canon (up to a certain point, anyway), readers should please keep in mind that certain characters and events from the prequel movies/novelizations of the films and even events/places/people referenced in the EU or Expanded Universe may be mentioned or alluded to in this story. If anyone has any questions about whether someone or something is AU, canon, or EU canon, please feel free to ask! **2.)** Readers should probably be aware that I am roughly estimating (guestimating might be a better word) the original publication date for most of the character study pieces in the **_You Became to Me_** series (and indeed most of my stories, especially the ones written over a long period of time), based on when I roughed out notes for them in the story notebooks I carry everywhere with me and when I can recall having worked on certain groups of characters. The year is going to be accurate, but the month might be off and the day will almost certainly be randomly chosen, since the online account I had originally posted many of these stories to no longer exists. I tend to go back and edit things that are in series whenever I get the time or a new idea causes me to have to make room for something else plot-wise, and odds are good that a story could have been edited for typos as recently as the day of its posting here, but the original version will likely be much older and fairly close to the publication date that I attach to it, if anyone's curious!

**“Shelanné Glenn, Fifth Handmaiden in the Second Class for Padmé Amidala”**

 

 **01.) Bug:** A rather nasty variant of a something like a flu bug (evidently brought to Naboo by an ill frigate pilot) took her entire family from her when she was only two, and no one has ever been able to explain to her why her perfectly healthy parents, older sister, and only living (maternal) aunt’s entire family (including three nearly full grown and extremely physically robust boys and a girl old enough that she was evidently seriously thinking about accepting a proposal for a single-year trial handfasting) should have all been so much more susceptible to the sickness than she was, though she rather tends to suspect that it has something to do with her Force sensitivity.

 **02.) Family:** Her mother’s family essentially (if unofficially) fostered/adopted a neighbor child during part of the girl’s youth, when her mother was ill and unable to care for her properly, and it is this all but sister to her mother, Atessia Nepascia, who takes her in, when her family is gone.

 **03.) Rowdy:** Her “brothers” – Dilyne, Kieras, Shaunn, and Connla Nepascia – are a rowdy bunch, but she loves them dearly, and they teach her all kinds of interesting things that she might not have ever otherwise learned, which more than makes up for her foster mother’s occasional scoldings about the perpetually muddy and grass-stained state of her clothing and hoydenish behavior that would (supposedly) shock her poor mother incredibly.

 **04.) Bargain:** When she’s a few months shy of her seventh natal day, Atessia finally promises that she will stop scolding Shelanné about her rough behavior and muddy clothes if she will only learn how to behave properly around visitors and promise to make an effort to always do so (behave, that is), when visitors actually do come calling, and so they eventually strike a bargain that satisfies everyone and preserves the family’s reputation without also making Shelanné miserable, in the process (which is a good thing, because otherwise she never would’ve kept up her end of said bargain, agreement or not!).

 **05.) Tease:** She does enjoy to be outside and to run about with her brothers, especially when there is riding to be done, but she also loves books and learning immensely (to the point where she will oftentimes postpone even a good long ride in fine weather in order to simply sit in a patch of sunshine somewhere and read for hours and hours on end), something for which her perpetually active brothers constantly tease her . . . right up until the moment when she actually manages to get them _all_ hooked on the exquisite (all but poetic) prose and endlessly engaging storytelling abilities of her three favorite fictional authors, after which she gets to tease them mercilessly about how they’ve all become such rabid bookworms.

 **06.) Proper:** In spite of everything, it isn’t quite considered proper for a young lady of good breeding to be in any part of the Nabooian Royal Security Forces (which is what she would most like to do, given her proficiency with weapons and excellent marksmanship), and the Nabooian Diplomatic Corps and Royal Advisory Council (neither of which she would mind serving as a member of, given her interest in law) tend to be limited to certain current and former politicians and retired or semi-retired professors or professional artists, so she frankly considers it a blessing in disguise, when King Veruna is unceremoniously ousted and replaced with a Queen who is almost of an age with her and Amidala’s people almost immediately make it clear that the old tradition of handmaidens – chosen companions, guardians, and helpmeets of the monarch – is going to be reinstated.

 **07.) Help:** It takes some doing, but her brothers all ban together to help her convince her foster parents that she should be allowed to apply for one of the handmaiden positions in the new Queen’s court, and, after her father, Corban, surprises her by approving of the notion fairly early on and both of the famous Cashillé sisters publicly declare that they are going to allow their second daughters to become handmaidens, if they wish to do so, her mother finally gives in and agrees to let her submit an application for the training program, so long as she promises she will be careful and do her best not to endanger herself (or anyone else!) needlessly.

 **08.) Decoy:** With her slight, slender build, brown hair, hazel-brown eyes, rather heart-shaped face, and fair complexion, she can make herself essentially look like and even sound like the young Queen, if she wants to (having long since mastered the art of cosmetics and having been an excellent mimic for many years), but she has no real interest in being a potential decoy for the Queen, as decoys, of course, cannot break cover by fighting back against assassination attempts or by attempting to cover the true Queen, during such an attack, and it is her intention to be a true guardian and helpmeet of her sworn lady and not just some up-jumped fancy lady-in-waiting.

 **09.) Prepared:** Her adoptive family is quite wealthy and belongs to the unofficial aristocracy of Naboo, and so she has, of course, met Yané Cashillé before, and even Dané Cashillé, once, quite briefly, at a ball held at the Theed Royal Palace; nothing, though, has quite prepared her for the reality of someone like Amidala, and it doesn’t help at all that some of the young Queen’s handmaidens (Sabé, for example) possess presences almost as overwhelmingly powerful and charismatic as that of Amidala . . . or that Dané has matured (since their brief first introduction) into a beautiful young lady who is like a woman made of living flame, towards whom she feels as helplessly drawn as a flitter-moth bedazzled by the heat and light of a blazing candle.

 **10.) Rethink:** This business with the Trade Federation is bad enough that she’s seriously beginning to wonder if the Nabooians as a people don’t need to rethink the planet-wide policy of essential pacifism, because she’s fairly certain that the Trade Federation wouldn’t dare try this kind of bullying behavior with a planet that had any kind of standing militia, and (unfortunately) she honestly doesn’t think that they’re in any kind of mood to back down from anything short of a military action brought against them.

 **11.) Love:** The Queen has ordered them to go to ground and start a resistance, and so that is what they do . . . and somewhere, in between the fear and worry for both the people of Naboo and their Queen (as well as each other), the missions with their danger and uncertainty, and the endless grief from a perpetual shortage of supplies and personnel, she and Dané tumble headlong into a love affair that they are both fairly certain will last the rest of their lifetimes.

 **12.) Faith:** She has faith in Amidala, of course (for pity’s sake, she wouldn’t _be_ a handmaiden, if she didn’t have faith in the Queen, now would she?), but she’s still frankly amazed that the Queen’s managed to pull this crazy scheme of hers for regaining the planet off with so relatively few casualties, and even more surprised that she and Dané have both made it through the adventure (storming of the Palace and all) entirely unscathed.

 **13.) Nature:** The other handmaidens and handmaiden trainees can often be heard to comment on her gentle, open personality, her honesty, her intelligence and wit, the luminous sense of inner peace that often seems to surround her, the way she appears as an epitome of goodness – like an idealized priestess, kindly and self-sacrificing, all sincerity, goodness and sweetness comprising her most basic nature, the place where she lives, in her heart and spirit, so that she finds it easier to be open and truthful and is capable of shading this only to prevent pain for others, her true manner being outgoing, sensitive, and wholly sweet, with little sense of manipulative calculation in her, instead appearing immediately responsive and receptive and wholesomely good, not to mention excellent at listening and extremely empathic as well as sympathetic – often comparing her to the Queen’s beloved friend and first chosen decoy, Sabé, a fact that at once makes her want to laugh hysterically at the absurdity of the comparison (for how little it reveals of what these other girls know of her, after all! True enough, she has steadied some and even become more gentle and understanding, since becoming a handmaiden and Dané’s lover – one of them has to be sensible and calm, after all, and it surely won’t ever be Dané! – but she does not think she has changed nearly so much as all of _that_!) and yet feel profoundly humble, to think that some of her fellows could truly believe her worthy of the honor of such a comparison.

 **14.) Care:** She has this odd feeling she cannot quite shake, like she’s rapidly running out of time, and so, in the aftermath of the battle to regain their world, she makes sure that Sabé and the other principal handmaidens know about her idea to see to it that some of the handmaidens are trained as Healers or at least as competent medics, so that they will hopefully never again be in the position of having wounded girls with no one immediately on hand capable of really helping to care for them.

 **15.) Retaliate:** They are, of course, expecting the Trade Federation (not to mention the probable second Sith, who’s still out there somewhere and quite possibly still in league with the Viceroy and his people, not to mention indubitably furious over the ruination of his plans, regarding Naboo, whatever those plans may have once been) to attempt to retaliate against the Queen for her part in defeating the Trade Federation and reclaiming Naboo; unfortunately though, they don’t expect those attempts to start quite as soon as they do, and so perhaps that’s why (in spite of a looming feeling of impending doom that’s been plaguing her off and on for most of the past week) she’s so surprised when the first hired assassins open fire on the “Queen” (actually, Dané in her role as Queen’s decoy) during the first live address to the citizens of Naboo (human, Gungan, and otherwise) as to the state of things, since the successful reclamation of their fair world from the Trade Federation, though that surprise does not keep her from springing forward to Dané’s side to order to catch her as she falls, shielding her with her slender body and so perishing with her, as the unforgiving blaster fire rapidly continues to pound away at them.

**Author's Note:**

>  **Clarification Note:** One of the reasons why my AU **Star Wars** series _**You Became to Me**_ is so entirely not even nearly complete has to do with the fact that I really started writing at the wrong end of the prequel trilogy for an AU (in my defense, though, when I started what became my _Thwarting the Revenge of the Sith_ trio, which is over a million words long, I thought I was doing a sort of one-shot fix-it based on an idea I got for "fixing" RotS by changing something that happens very near the end of James Luceno's EU novel _Labyrinth of Evil_ , which is set immediately prior to RotS). One of these days, I fully intend to rectify that problem by going back and starting from the beginning, with an AU rewrite of TPM, which is why I took the time to do a character study sketch for a supporting character like Shelanné. She'll be showing up again, in a more prominent role, whenever I get around to that AU rewrite of TPM. Folks might want to keep that in mind when reading this, since technically this is spoilerish for an AU novel that I haven't gotten around to writing yet!


End file.
